Christmas time is "Lebkuchen' Time

In Switzerland, "Lebkuchen' (ginger bread in English) is tradition at Christmas. For many years I have missed Lebkuchen, then I was thinking. It can't be too hard to bake my own after all it's just like a bread, so I went looking for recipes on the internet and found a few. The secret seems to be the spices which can be purchased in stores in Switzerland already mixed, called Lebkuchen-Spices. Again I did some research and found the names of the spices, which are all available in shops here. Armed with the recipe and the secret of the spices, I had a go:

First I placed 50g of brown sugar in a bowl

Then I added an egg

Then I added 50g of honey

Then I added 20g of margarine and whisked

it into a smooth sauce

Then I added the rind of an orange

and mixed that in as well

In a clean bowl I placed 200g of flour and added

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Then I mixed the spices

(tk=tip of knife)

2 tk ground ginger

1 tk Allspice

1tk ground Nutmeg

1 tk ground Cinnamon

1 tk ground Cumin

1 tk ground Cardamom

1 tk ground Coriander

I then added these spices to the flour and sifted it several times

The liquid was then added quickly to the flour and

mixed into a playable dough

I then rolled the dough between 2 pieces of baking paper

And shaped it into the sizes required

In this case I made two about 18cm X 10cm

These were placed into a pre-heated oven and

baked at 180ºC for 18 Minutes

While the pies were baking, I mixed a solution of

icing sugar with a little water. This solution is then

painted onto the pies when they come out of the oven

I then beat an eggwhite stiff so that it won't run

if you turn the bowl upside down. To that I added

icing sugar to make a fairly thick paste

This paste I placed into a plastic bag and cut a very small

corner off the bag

I then used the bag as a piping tool decorating

the Lebkuchens

Here is one. The swiss cross and an S

as it is going to my daughter Sonya in

Sydney.

The other one I took to my mate Martin who is in hospital. Martin is a Swiss Master Pastry-chef and Diane thought I was very game, bringing an amateur Lebkuchen to a professional chef. That I am!

Saying

I have a question to you, dear bloggers...

I was reading the newspaper this morning as I do most mornings when I came across a saying I've heard many times before and its meaning I understand but don't follow the word play exactly. The saying is:

"Don't cut off your nose to spite your face".

There is a saying in Switzerland for the same meaning: "Cut off the branch on which you sit", which to me makes more sense.

So, what's with the nose and face thing?

Can anyone explain it to me,

Cheers,

Bill

Baby like Beyonce

Somebody sent me this great video. I love it. I hope you do too.....

I need a good night's sleep!

For over a week, we've had a visitor. Once a year the 'Common Koel' a migratory bird visits us. This bird is very hard to spot as it is extremely good at hiding, but boy, do you hear it! Yesterday it was in a tree near us and singing it's little heart out, but no matter how hard we looked, we couldn't see it. It has a monotonous song that sounds something like a wolf-whistle directed at a pretty girl coming from a building site. Only this one won't stop, it goes on and on.

It did finally stop at around 7 pm. We watched a little TV, went to bed around 10.30pm and woke up at 3.45 by, you guessed it... our visitor. Both Diane and I dived for our ear plugs and tried to go back to sleep. Me, without success because I could still hear that annoying sound.

It did eventually stop at around 5 am and I haven't heard it today, so hopefully it went back to New Guinea or wherever it came from.

The Common Koel

Here is a short video to show you how annoying that sound is. Bad enough during the day but at 3.45 in the morning? Boy that plays havoc with your sanity.

Redlands - This is your Life

Diane and I recently joined the camera club of the Redlands' U3A (University of the 3rd Age) and we attend the monthly meetings of like-minded amateur photographers. Well, word got out that I am also a videographer, so the 'Footlight' theatre company also part of U3A, asked me if I could video their annual musical, this year called 'Redlands, this is your Life'. I enlisted the help of Diane and another videographer also called Bill, and armed with 3 cameras, we decended upon their stage in Cleveland and filmed the production.

The two Bills are setting up the cameras

Filming the musical

The final song of the musical

The production was fabulous. The entire compamy is made up of senior citizens some over 80 years old, but boy, can they still belt out a tune.

Sonya and Bernard in 'New Idea'

Our famous offspring (well Bernard, anyway) have been asked for an article in this week's 'New Idea' magazine. Sonya, our daughter was a little reluctant to have her picture in the mag but eventually relented. So walking past a news stand, I couldn't help myself to buy a copy.

Click on the pictures to enlarge

I'll probably get into trouble putting these on my blog but, hey... I'm her proud dad!

More about the new Bear Park in Bern

After yesterday's post on the Bear Park, here is a video showing more about this new Swiss Attraction. The video is by Swissinfo, formerly Swiss Radio International.